West Africa Better Prepared to Contain Future Ebola Outbreaks

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND—

The World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Africa says West Africa is better prepared to tackle future outbreaks of Ebola. In an exclusive interview with VOA, Matshidiso Moeti says Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are now able to respond more quickly to emergencies because of upgrades to their surveillance, laboratory and health care systems.

The director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the Africa region, Matshidiso Moeti looks on during a visit to Zuma Town on the outskirts of the capital Monrovia, Liberia, April 22, 2015. In an exclusive interview with VOA, Moeti said in May, 2016, West Africa was better prepared to tackle future outbreaks of Ebola.

Moeti became head of WHO’s regional office for Africa in February 2015, at the height of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. As the World Health Organization’s chief troubleshooter in the region, she told VOA she knew she had to do whatever was necessary to stop the spread of this fatal disease.

Ebola had killed more than 11,000 people in the three most heavily affected West African countries by the time WHO declared the transmission of the Ebola virus virtually over at the end of last year.

publish - Lisa SchleinMay 29 2016

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